Help with troubleshooting new computer

R

Russ

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 14, 2005
Messages
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I just put together a new computer, and it won't post!

It's a Seasonic S12-500 powering a 7800GTX, Maxtor 200gb SATA, Venice 3000+, 2GB of Mushkin SP, a floppy, a CD burner, and a DVD burner all on a DFI nf4-DAGF.

I just pulled everything out of their boxes, screwed it all in, connected all the plugs, and tried to boot up. No POST!

The power led lights up, and kinda flashes (but that could just be my eyes), the HDD led doesn't light up at all, no HDD accessing sounds. The fans spin too.

My CD burner in the secondary slave postition lights up, but my DVD burner in the secondary master posittion doesn't. Neither opens when I press the open button.

My monitor gets no signal. I am using an adapter to connect it to the 7800GTX's DVI 1 slot, it's not a DVI monitor.

Any clues? I haven't built a computer before, and I'm kind of pissed off because the same sort of problem occured with my old computer, and so I bought this one.

I know the monitor works because I just had it hooked up to this computer that I'm typing on. Both burners worked fine in my old computer before it broke.

O, I don't think this matters, but before I had the mobo hooked up to the PSU (and before the PSU was turned on or plugged into the outlet), I dropped a screw on the mobo a few times while trying to put it in the case. I was using a screwdriver with a magnetized tip (only one i've got in the right size), so the screw was kinda magnetized (rudimentary physics here as I recall, magnets magnetize metals). Just wondering if that might have shorted it or something (that would have really sucked). Also I didn't use any rubber washers, just screwed the mobo directly onto the metal standoffs where it had those metal rings.

I'm going to start pulling things out, or at least disconnecting the power to them. This makes me mad b/c I've already spent a few hours doing some rudimentery cable management (my first time doing that too).

edit: I can't get the damn thing to beep. I think it's the speaker I'm using. I've plugged it in facing both ways with absolutely nothing but the proc plugged in and I don't get a beep. There is no ram, no video card, no hdd, no CD/DVD drives, no floppy, no pci cards, just the fans. All the fans spin, and the "standby power" and "DRAM power" leds on the mobo itself are lit up red.
 
sounds like a bad mobo to me. the magnetized screw driver couldnt have messed with anything. ive used them all the time and everything turns out fine. it would have to be a strong magnet to do some real damage. washers atleast i think are not needed between the stand offs. its just an extra precaution. ive never used them but, everybody has their ways i guess. i think its a bad mobo. did you try resetting the cmos? too tired to read over if u did or not.
 
no i haven't done that. I just move the jumper to the "clear cmos" position and start up for a few seconds? Or what? I'm a little unclear on the whole process. I hope to god that the mobo isn't dead because that would just piss me off like crazy because I've waited for this computer for forever.

That's good news about the screws and the standoffs. I made sure the board wasn't touching any part of the case.

I've heard that the stock DFI bios doesn't play well with venice procs. Could this be causing the problem? I don't see how I'd update the bios without posting though.
 
update:

Clearing the CMOS didn't work. O, and the speaker might be the reason I'm not getting any beeps, I don't really trust it. It's pretty old, is there any other way to get it to let me know that it knows stuff (gpu/ram) is missing?

And the keyboard flashes all three lights on power on, but the num lock light doesn't come back on.
 
Take the motherboard out of the case and boot it on a non-conductive surface (the cardboard motherboard box works well). Only boot it with the following connected:

Power supply (make sure the 24-pin and 4-pin connectors are connected)
CPU
RAM
Video card w/ monitor connected

Let us know how it goes. If it powers on and seems to go through POST correctly, the motherboard was probably grounding on the case somewhere. If it doesn't POST, we have some more troubleshooting to do.
 
man i was hoping you wouldn't say that. >_<

The wires are done up so nicely....

And all these damn screws (it's an older case, no tooless design here kiddo!)....

I'll get to work on that.
 
ok, i took it all out and put the mobo on the anti-static bag it came in. plugged in the 24 and 4 pin connectors, the video card, pci-e connector (to the video card), and left the single ram stick and proc in the mobo.

I had no way to turn the comp on, so i took out the power switch thingy from the case, plugged just that in (no power led, hdd led, reset power, or speaker).

Still no post. :( I added in the keyboard and got the same initial flash of lights, then nothing. Still no response from the monitor. I'm sure the video card and monitor connectors are securely attached.
 
Russ said:
I had no way to turn the comp on, so i took out the power switch thingy from the case, plugged just that in (no power led, hdd led, reset power, or speaker).
Click to expand...

For future reference, when this happens, use a screw driver or paper clip (or anything electrically conductive) to short the 2 power switch pins. This causes absolutely no harm to the motherboard and works like a charm. You can even do it for the reset switch.

You need to start looking at swapping parts. I'd start with the motherboard and power supply. I'd trust the SeaSonic power supply so maybe start with the motherboard.

Sorry about the bad news. 8(
 
yea, that was my first sinking feeling...

I just hoped that the magic of the internet ( ;) ) would be able to come up with something.... *sigh* more damn waiting for damn retailers to send me parts.
 
Russ said:
yea, that was my first sinking feeling...

I just hoped that the magic of the internet ( ;) ) would be able to come up with something.... *sigh* more damn waiting for damn retailers to send me parts.
Click to expand...
Try contacting the vendor directly. Typically, resellers don't like to do RMAs because it could possibly lead to a loss. Vendors (especially DFI) like to take care of customers because they stand by their product. Unless you bought the motherboard from a semi-reputable place like newegg/zzf, call up DFI and ask for advance replacement.
 
i got it from monarch.

does "advance replacement" involve cross shipping? *hopes* That would be sweet.
 
I'm trying an 8 hour cmos clear.

DFI street is confusing, to say the least. The good thing is, a lot of people have offered suggestions. The bad thing, 3/4 of them were suggesting things for the Lanparty Ultra-D!
 
Have you tried using an old PCI video card?


CERTAINLY try that.


A lil bit of maybe useful info: When I got my new x800xl (over my old 9800pro) I noticed that my post time tripled! It's almost at the point where it doesn't post at all. This is due (I think) to the new card needing loads more power than my shitty antec 480w psu can handle. My pc works fine, though I have had to massively decrease the FSB overclock just to get the mem stable since adding the x800xl.

So yeah, try an old pci card, you probably have one lying about somewhere...
 
uh russ your mobo mite need a bios flash/update so that the new rev E core will work with it.

i got mine wrking but then boom goes the psu...stupid faulty psu
 
I kno... :( But how am I supposed to flash it w/o it posting?

and about the pci card: >_< d'oh I forgot my first video card (that actually fit a socket I had, silly me, not knowing what AGP and PCI were) was PCI. I know I can find it around here somewhere.... I think I'll let this extended CMOS clear run for at least another hour though, just to be sure.

And that the card might be in my brother's computer atm... I hope it is actually, b/c other than that I don't know where it is so I'll have to wait for my dad to come home tonight and ask him where he might have put it (it's annoying not living at home anymore sometimes, I don't know where anything is).
 
Some motherboard's will automatically flash off a floppy if you set things right.

Even with my old my epox board I just have to copy a correct bios image onto a floppy disk (just that by itself) and hold down a certain key combination when turning on the PC (alt+f2 or something).

Read your mobo manual, hopefully there's be something in there about it.
 
This problem had happen to me when I first started building comps. My experience tells me that your motherboard is shorted because you didn't use any rubber washers (Happened to me twice). I can be completely wrong though, but if anything, RMA your board. Hope this helps.
 
yea, i have kinda resigned myself to that now... :(

When I get my new board, I will be sure to test it OUT of the case first!

It's not my fault entirely though, the mobo didn't come with any rubber washers or screws or anything. And I haven't get a new case yet, so I don't have any rubber washers (there weren't any on my previous PC). I guess I'll go to autozone or home depot sometime....
----
And the DFI manual telling you anything? Ha! I've looked through it, there's a wordless explanation of the parts of the mobo, then a list of the features (like 4 DIMM slots, wowie!) in few different languages. That's about it.
 
It probably isn't the rubber washers. I've never used rubber washers to mount the motherboard. As far as I'm aware, you actually SHOULDN'T necessarily do that. The screw holes have carefully placed metal around them on the mobo as if to contact a metal screw that contacts your metal back plate. This is to ensure that the mobo is properly grounded. Maybe add them on the under side as a cushion, but it's not a necessity.

If you use rubber washers, you run the risk of not grounding the mobo and that really could fuck it up!


I expect in your case, it's just a matter of D.O.A. My brother bought a brand new nforce mobo last year and just had the exact same thing. Just wouldn't power up no matter what. No wrong procedure or anything.


Shit happens...
 
Yea, I have an RMA number from Monarch now, gonna send it in today I think.

I tried an old PCI card (MX440? Not sure about teh number, but pretty sure it was an MX). It didn't work. In fact, it didn't even power on. o_O When I pressed the power button with the pci card in, the fans spun for like 1/2 second, then everythign died. Very weird. I plugged the 7800GTX right back in and it did the same thing it's been doing (fans spin but no post)! Veeeery odd.
 
Definitely your mobo then. Hopefully your whole RMA prcoess won't take too long. Though it IS usually about 28 days (literally) for most companies unless they do a cross ship.

If you're taking it back to a shop outlet, then it'll probably be pretty speedy.
 
I remember one time I forgot to plug in the CPU 4-pin power connector and I freaked cause I didnt know what the problem was. I felt like an idiot when I realized that the CPU wasnt getting any power. Im sure youve probably triple checked your connections though before deciding to send the motherboard back. Hopefully a new motherboard will solve the problem.
 
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